There are proposals to provide broadcast communications services on certain channels of various wireless communications networks, such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, including Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and wide band systems such as CDMA 2000 and UMTS WCDMA systems. These broadcast communication services are intended to provide a variety of information content in a variety of formats. For example, news, weather, stock information, and sports information can be provided using a video broadcast format, a picture format, and a text ticker format. Other information content includes music, music video, and entertainment. Each general type of information content could be provided using any number and combination of formats.
Generally, broadcast communications are unidirectional from a wireless base station to one or more wireless terminals. For example, a video broadcast may require a transmission rate of several ten-thousand bits per second (bps) in the forward direction from the base station to the mobile station while requiring only several thousand bps in the reverse link direction to support signaling. Because of the pronounced asymmetry of transmission, the quality of the received signal at the wireless terminal is an important parameter in supporting broadcast services.
Usually, the broadcast communication services are transmitted on a channel at a fixed power. With dynamic radio conditions that are typical with wireless communications, users do not want to receive a broadcast service only to find that the quality of the reception is unsatisfactory. Frequent occurrences of poor reception quality, especially when a user is paying by the minute, will degrade the user experience. However, network operators also desire to limit broadcast transmission signal strength for a variety of reasons. Thus, there is a desire to obtain broadcast services in a wireless communication system at an expected quality level without having to transmit at unnecessarily high signal power levels.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Drawings and accompanying Detailed Description.